Tag Archives: Gypsies

The history of the Holocaust has been detailed in thousands of books, memoirs and films that make clear to any normal human that Nazi Germany was guilty of an unspeakable horror in its murderous campaign against innocent people. As one who helped found a Holocaust Museum, there was ongoing discussion concerning the need to make part of its content, the story of what happened to gays, Romas and millions of others who were murdered by German forces. No Holocaust Center ever attempts to present a version of the Holocaust in which only Jews are victims. Archbishop Dadeus Grings from Porto Alegre in southern Brazil only added to the problems of Pope Benedict by becoming the second Catholic bishop to create a Holocaust issue for the Church where none should exist. The bishop said: “The Jews talk about six million people killed. But, how many Catholics were victims of the Holocaust?” He went on to add: “Jews say they were the main victims of the Holocaust, the biggest victims were the gypsies, because they were exterminated.”

It insults those who died in the Holocaust or anyone who died as a result of German action to get into the “numbers game” as to who “suffered the most.” How does one measure “suffering?” This is a ridiculous discussion. Over thirty million Russians died, Jews as well as Christians. Millions of Catholics died as did Protestants and atheists. The only way to respond to the ignorance of this Catholic bishop is –silence. Pope Benedict has spoken eloquently about the Holocaust and it insults the Catholic Church and those who have worked for reconciliation to allow this ignorant man from Brazil to assume his comments have any worth or any standing in his church.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi got elected on his platform of cracking down on crime, and to many Italians that is synonymous with cracking down on Gypsies. A recent order in Rome caused 25 Gypsy families to find themselves placed in a field just outside the city limits of Rome even though Rome’s police chief opposed the order. They were hounded out by police using dogs against the families including women and children. Alessandro, commented: “We work for a living but in a couple of hours everything we had created, relationships we had built with locals over the decades was wiped out.” Most of the 150,000 Gypsies currently in Italy are working people, but prejudice stirred up by right wing haters has destroyed the lives of these innocent inhabitants of Italy.

In Naples, a Gypsy camp was firebombed and throughout the country angry cries of hatred echo against the Gypsy. In Rome, those supporting Gypsy rights marched through the streets including Holocaust survivors. Some Gypsies marched wearing concentration camp uniforms withe the letter “Z” on their chest to signify there were a Gypsy.

The 25 Gypsies described previously are now in a field next to Tor Vrgata University. The Rector of the university has but one question: “When will they be evicted?”

Ironically, all the complaints about Gypsies being lazy or criminal are the same words of hatred uttered against Italian Americans by hate mongers.